Amid ongoing debate over the alleged N400 million bribery scandal surrounding a “fake Federal Government agency”, the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, PFIPC, a budget analyst, Joseph Oriowo, has stated that the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President has no budgetary authority.
Oriowo spoke in reaction to allegations that President Bola Tinubu’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, collected N400 million as bribe from one Adeniyi Adeyemi for appointment as Director General of PFIPC. It is also being alleged that PFIPC was captured in the national budget, with reports indicating that over N1 billion was allocated to the agency in the 2026 budget.
It will be recalled that the Presidency had described PFIPC, which has an office at the Federal Secretariat, Abuja, as a fake agency that does not exist.
Speaking on the controversy, Oriowo pointed out what he described as fundamental ignorance of how the Nigerian budgetary process works.
He said, “The Chief of Staff has no budget authority. Under Nigeria’s Constitution and the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the power to propose, allocate and include agencies in the annual budget rests solely with the Executive as a whole, through the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Budget Office of the Federation, and ultimately, the President, who transmits the Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly.
“The Office of the Chief of Staff is not a budgetary office. It is not a line ministry; it does not control the envelope system or issue budget call circulars. It does not sit on
